1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuse link assembly designed so as to incorporate, into a housing, a plurality of terminals while being connected in a chain manner, as well as to a layout method for the fuse link assembly.
The present invention is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-133553, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Related Art
In association with recent developments in electronic control, the number of electronic components used in a vehicle, such as an automobile, has increased. Such an increase in the number of electronic components has in turn led to demand for a large-current fuse. In this case, in order to enhance the efficiency of housing a fuse, there has been proposed a fuse link assembly 1 such as that described in Japanese Patent Application No. 133114/2000 and shown in FIG. 16.
In the fuse link assembly 1, a fuse circuit 5 is constituted by providing a plurality of first terminals 3 and a second terminal 4 on a straight joint plate 2. The fuse circuit 5 is incorporated into a housing 6. The housing 6 is closed with a cover 7 while housing the fuse circuit 5.
However, since a number of the electronic components to be used in a vehicle tend to be increased recently, such the fuse link assembly is required to pack a larger number of circuits. In the fuse link assembly 1 shown in FIG. 16, the first terminals 3 and the second terminal 4 are arranged in a straight line along the joint plate 2. When an attempt is made to increase the number of circuits, the first terminals 3 and the second terminal 4 are increased in number by extending merely the joint plate 2.
When the number of circuits is increased by extending the joint plate 2, the fuse link assembly 1 is gradually extended in a longitudinal direction thereof. The number of circuits to be packed is significantly limited for such the fuse link assemblies due to the layout on the vehicle or restrictions on the geometry and mountability of a relay box.
The present invention has been conceived to solve the problem of the related art and aims at providing a fuse link assembly which enables packing of an increased number of circuits while miniaturizing the overall fuse link assembly and saving space when a fuse circuit having a plurality of terminals provided in a chain manner is incorporated into a housing, as well as providing a layout method for the fuse link assembly.
To achieve the object, there is provided a fuse link assembly comprising: at least two fuse circuits, each having a plurality of terminals, a common joint plate and a circuit connection portion, the terminals being be arranged longitudinally in a chain manner and connected to the joint plate with fusible portions; and a housing in which the fuse circuits are mounted; wherein the fuse circuits are mounted in the housing in parallel with each other and share a power input portion.
In the invention, the fuse circuits, each having a plurality of terminals provided thereon in a chain manner, are mounted in parallel in a housing. As a result, the number of circuits can be increased, by means of enlargement of the width of the housing in which the fuse circuits are provided in parallel, without involvement of an increase in the length of the housing in which terminals are to be connected. The fuse circuits arranged in parallel are connected to a power input portion by means of connecting a common circuit connection portion. Since separate joint plates can share the circuit connection section, the connection of I/O sections can be set efficiently.
More specifically, the plurality of terminals may be cut depending on the presence or absence of a circuit to be connected to the terminals.
By the above construction, the number of terminals to be provided in a chain manner can be changed arbitrarily in accordance with the number of circuits to which the fuse link assembly is to be attached. Hence, one type of fuse link assembly can be used for different circuits.
Further, the housing in which the fuse circuits are mounted may be connected directly to a relay box main body.
By the above construction, there can be omitted a block member which would otherwise be interposed between a housing having a plurality of use circuits incorporated therein and a relay box main body.
The invention provides a layout method for a fuse link assembly comprising the steps of: providing at least two fuse circuits, each having a plurality of terminals and a common joint plate, the terminals being be arranged longitudinally in a chain manner and connected to the joint plate with fusible portions; providing with a circuit connection portion sharing a power input portion; fastening the circuit connection portion together; and mounting the fuse circuits in the housing in parallel with each other.
According to the invention, a plurality of fuse circuits, each having a plurality of terminals provided in a chain manner, are incorporated into a housing in parallel while shared circuit connection portions are fastened. As a result, there can be effected fastening of a plurality of fuse circuits simultaneous with incorporation of the fuse circuits into a housing. Thus, ease of assembly operation can be simplified. Further, the number of fuse circuits can be increased in the widthwise direction in which the fuse circuits are juxtaposed, without involvement of an increase in the longitudinal direction in which terminals are linked.